Of Flames & Passion
by Ebony Mitsu
Summary: The light succumbed to the darkness, but One of several points of Light remained within time to be reborn. The line between love and hate is so blurred and yet they are very different, but let us examine one point in time in which they came together . .


**Title: Of Flames & Passion**

**Pairing: Rei x Jadeite**

**Genres: Romance, Tragedy**

**Summary: A thousand years ago the White Moon fell in a battle between the forces of good and evil. The light succumbed to the darkness. But One of several points of light remained within time to be reborn. Let us come together now to examine this thread of time and space, so closely intertwined with others, and see what became of the soldiers of the war, and, perhaps, we can give new meaning to the events that occured.**

**Author's Note: This is the second in what is starting to look to be a a series of one-shots revolving around the end of the Moon Kingdom and the Silver Alliance. Like my previous fic _Of Crystal & Ice _this is related to my multi-chapter story _To Grasp At Quicksilver_. Be warned that this does get a little dark in places.**

**For everybody who requested another story in the series, and for Jinora who specifically requested this pairing, i hope it lives up to everyone's expectations. Enjoy, **

**Ebony x**

* * *

**Of Flame & Passion**

Rei Hino slid the door closed behind her, eyes never looking up from the floor even as she shuffled in pyjamas and bare feet across the floor to the cushion. She knelt and took several deep, steadying breaths before looking up. Violet eyes were immediately caught by the bright flames, coaxing her to them, deeper and deeper, until she saw.

The dreams had begun, if she were to be completely honest with herself, when she had first been given a small red wand by a talking black cat. But they had been small, and vague, and quiet, and she had barely noticed their presence. They became a little sharper with each Dark Kingdom General they had defeated, and then sharper still with each battle, each enemy. Win or lose, the dreams were always with her.

The fire showed her this now; it showed her her first battles against the blond General Jadeite, their princess's defeat of Beryl and Metallia, on and on, until it reached the point in life at which they stood, on the precipice of a new age, nearing the end of the old era.

She had long since figured out that the dreams were not dreams at all. Memories seeped into her mind from the shadows of eternity, trickling back like a brook. The fire showed her her dreams, her memories of a time dead a thousand years.

Her nightmare . . .

* * *

The guards stood at the door stoically, doing their duty. However the sanctity of this space prevented them from going any further than this liminal boundary. Secretly, both were amazed at the docility of the woman they were watching; she was better known for her ferocious temper than for her co-operation.

Raechal, the Martian Princess, Senshi and High Priestess, was knelt before the great flame, staring deep into the glowing depths. She had been here for the better part of a month, in the Great Temple, the mother temple of all others in the Alliance. Her caped tunic, once immaculate, was sooty and sweat-stained from her exertions with the fire.

Once more she attempted to coax the flames to give her the answers she sought. Once more she tried to see, but to no avail. Any other person, bar perhaps Ven- . . . _Mina_, would see only flames. But Raechal could see the shadows that barred her way.

A tear slipped past her guard and down her face, carving a trail through the soot on her cheek.

She had failed. She couldn't do anything right. She had failed the person who meant more to her than anything else in the known worlds. She could do nothing.

Violet eyes found the shape of her ring on her left finger. It was a promise, from him. A symbol. Supposedly, a circle was more difficult to break than a heart. She supposed that was true. Her heart was broken, and had been slowly shattering further, since that fateful night when her very soul was rent in two. Yet this ring, a simple band of golden metal studded with a star-burst ruby from Terra, was still intact.

The priesthood now looked on her with distaste, the court with suspicion. Only 'Lita, Amelia and Mina understood. Serenity understood, a little. They understood because they shared her pains.

Mina had collapsed against her, hysterical, in the middle of the gardens. Raechal had known immediately what had happened. Mina's bright blue eyes became dull and lifeless, an expression that mirrored Raechal's. So far as she knew, Mina had yet to make an appearance outside of her rooms. Even there, she rarely came out of her bed chamber. That had been three weeks ago.

The next of them to fall had been 'Lita, shortly after she, Raechal and Amelia had found Endymion in the garden maze. In the middle of the throne room, in front of the entire court, the Jovian had suddenly fallen to the ground and begun to scream, a single word over and over. A single name. Now she walked everywhere with a haunted look in her eyes. She didn't eat, didn't sleep, could barely stand to look at the gardens or the night sky.

Within the next two or three hours, Amelia was struck with the same pains. Her love's name had passed like desperate pleas from her lips. The Mercurian, known by many as an Ice Princess, had surprised them all; she had not stopped crying since. Her eyes now mirrored the surface of her world; Arctic wastes. She had not struck up the courage to return to the library until last week.

Those two had begun their suffering two weeks ago. It amazed Raechal that they could still face reality. She didn't know how they coped.

She turned her head slightly, ignoring the sting and burning of her tears as they gathered and fell in steady rhythm. Someone was talking to her 'keepers'. She snorted at the thought; those gutless dogs did not deserve to be called guards. They had no idea of the true problem. They should be less concerned with watching the Princess's elite guards and be more worried about what was coming for them.

Maybe, she thought bitterly, if they focused even half as much on their training as they were on keeping an eye on the Senshi, then they could have a chance at some kind of victory instead of the twisted images she had seen that fateful night after her princess's birthday celebration.

The click of heels on cool marble drew her attention from her dark thoughts, and she saw four guards now, not two. Which of her sisters had come to her? The question was answered when firelight fell onto blonde hair.

Her eyes were still lifeless, her hair without its usual lustre, but Mina had made an attempt to look alive again. She had washed and brushed her hair. She smelled like flowers again. Before she had looked like a corpse barely dead.

Wordlessly, Mina knelt on a large, plush pillow beside her sister senshi. There was silence in the temple once more for several minutes.

"The queen has requested our presence." Mina said at last, her blue eyes lost in the flames' dance. Raechal sometimes wondered, jokingly, if there was Martian blood in the Venusian's veins. The firelight revealed lilac tints to the depths of blue. "She has called a council of war. Our worst fears are realised. The enemy has begun to reach skyward, to us."

"I told you all this would happen months ago." there was no scorn in Raechal's voice, instead there was no emotion. It was eerie.

Mina looked at her now. Raechal looked like a ghost. She had really been taking this hard.

The Silver Court couldn't understand why they were being affected so badly. Endymion was the only one who fully understood their pains. Serenity had felt only strong discomfort as her bonds with the Shitennou hadn't been as strong, and although she felt their pain through her bonds with Endymion and the senshi, she didn't understand because the pain wasn't hers.

"I'm sorry we didn't listen." Mina spoke quietly.

Raechal barely stirred. "It matters not, now. The shadows come, and we fall." she stood and dusted off her garment, a vain gesture and they both knew it. She only succeeded in spreading more soot over the pale red cloth. "I will attend the meeting, but I have something to do, first." She began to walk further into the depths.

"You said there would be betrayal first."

Halting at the Venusian's words, she turned so that one violet eye looked back at Mina over her shoulder. "I did."

"If we knew where it was coming from, then maybe-"

"I don't know where it's coming from," Raechal interrupted coolly, "but we cannot stop it from happening. It already has. That much the fire will tell me." she continued on.

The meeting passed by in a daze for Raechal. She barely comprehended what was said, but the thought of Metallia returning was among her worst nightmares. In her depression, Raechal ignored everyone, she spoke out of turn, but no one batted an eyelash at her appalling behaviour. Pity the Martian, they thought, for her pet is dead.

Once proud, now all but destroyed, Raechal was a shell of her former self. She knew she wouldn't survive the coming battle. Deep down her sisters knew, too, that they would not survive. She all but fled to her room when they were allowed to leave. Locking herself in, Raechal was alone with her misery and her nightmares. Not even the fire offered her comfort, and for the first time in her life Raechal took a bucket of water from the bathing chamber and put the flames out.

Little did she know that the true nightmare had only just begun . . .

**o.O.o**

Another crash echoed throughout the Lunar Palace and echoes of thunder followed close behind bright flashes of light. A storm raged on the Moon for the first time in known history, brought by the senshi of storms in her rage against the enemy. A pity, for if the situation had not been so dire she might have thought it beautiful.

"We cannot wait any longer." Mars said sternly, turning to face Venus more than the Princess. "we have waited too long as it is, we must get them to safety."

Serenity said nothing, only stood in the arms of her prince, numb to everything around her. She had been that way almost since the battle had begun. Endymion looked at her, shocked, even angry.

"You would leave your Queen without -"

"We have no choice, Your Highness. We must leave or risk losing the only thing worth protecting. If she dies then all is lost before we have had a chance." Venus' words left him scowling, but he protested no more, and Mars helped her to start hustling them out of the ballroom.

A note of pain thrummed along their bonds with Mercury, and Serenity gasped from the sudden rending of a bond, collapsing against Endymion as she murmured her fallen friend's name. Mars and Venus barely remained standing.

Jupiter had fallen, Mercury was hurting terribly, but they had no time to find out why or help her.

They were halfway up the stairs when both Mars and Venus stopped still and froze, both going deathly pale. In unison, they whirled around on the marble steps to face the writhing shadows of the cavernous room. All sounds of the storm had ceased, and neither allowed themselves to think about what it meant.

"Who's there?" Venus' voice echoed among shadows. The hairs on Mars' arms rose and she began to edge closer to the prince and princess, trying to surreptitiously herd them to the top of the stairs. Though Serenity hadn't heard what had caused them to stall, Endymion clearly had; he had gone as pale as the girls. Her unspoken questions were answered as two figures stepped into a pool of light.

"Jadeite, Malachite." Endymion's voice behind her was hoarse.

Looking confused, the Moon Princess whispered barely loud enough to be heard; "But when mother asked Lord Hades, he said they had gone beyond his gates."

"A simple mistake, princess." Malachite's deep tones sent chills down Mars' spine. Finally, his voice matched his appearance. But she had to wonder what had caused the change.

When Venus took a step towards him she stopped her, and at the Venusian's hurt and confused look she murmured quietly, "Use your gifts. Something is not right."

"How observant, Nightingale."

Her heart stuttered at his voice. The loving endearment dripped from his tongue now like acid rather than honey. Only one person knew of her abilities to sing bar her senshi sisters, and only one person called her by that name.

Outwardly, at first glance, he appeared to be the same, just like Malachite. But looking at him gave her chills that had nothing to do with the roaring explosions and screams of death that she could hear. Her sixth sense was going berserk, but it couldn't tell her anything of use.

"Mina," the sound of her name whispered helped the blonde tear her blue eyes away, "Take the Prince and the Princess. Get them to safety." Mars' eyes never left the two men now standing at the base of the steps, violet orbs unreadable and steady, a direct contradiction to the intense pain, anguish and confusion that the Venusian could feel rolling off her friend in waves.

Finally, Mars' wise young eyes met the sky blue eyes of Venus, and the blonde saw the tears held at bay within them and the determination to see her fate through to the bitter end. She knew what was to come, and suddenly Venus could see it too with frightening clarity. And then Mars allowed one last whisper to pass her pale rose lips and Venus obeyed without second thought, turning back to her mission with renewed vigour even as her own heart screamed.

"Run."

As she watched her leader and her friend flee with the only hope they had left, Malachite let out a strange roar and surged up the stairs to follow. Mars met his blade with her own fire as he tried to remove her from his way, but she failed to keep him there; he had passed her before she could rally the flames again. She had only bought them a few seconds, hopefully they would make full use of what they had.

There was no time to think again on what ifs and maybes. A psychic blast from behind threw her into a marble wall and she collapsed to the floor.

"I hope you had not forgotten about me, sweet Nightingale."

Her heart grew heavier with every word he spoke.

Suddenly, without warning, her heart shattered anew, a bond that to her always felt of ice splintered as though it was nothing more than a thin glass pane. Another cry echoed throughout the palace, the voice that of her princess, and she knew exactly what had happened without having to examine the now gaping wound too closely.

Mercury had left them too.

Her only consolation was that Jadeite stumbled as he walked towards her, his face contorted in pain and anger as one of his own bonds backlashed. Zoicite. Nephrite had died just before the encounter in the ballroom had begun.

"You think you can win?"

His harsh words had her looking up, frozen in the act of getting to her feet. She was caught unawares as another wave of telekinetic force swept her up and into the wall several feet above before allowing her to collapse to the floor once more with a startled cry.

"You seriously believe that you can defeat my queen? After everything we have proven to you?" another blast sent her skittering back towards the stairs over sharp rubble. The irony of her situation was not lost on her; this was the room where they had first met, and he had danced with her here when it had been filled with light and music and laughter. Now he would destroy her here.

"We have felled two of your sisters already, do not think it would be difficult to destroy the rest of you Mars!"

A laugh bubbled to her lips, born of hysteria and bitterness and grief, followed by a thin rivulet of deep red blood. "I'm almost flattered that you're not wasting words in trying to convert me, my lord." she summoned her most mocking tones as she struggled to her knees, looking up with wounded violet eyes.

Her words made him stop, made him look at her, and within him she sensed conflict, though one side would never see light again. It only confirmed what she believed; this was only a body, and the heart harboured within was not the one she loved.

"But then, I suppose it would be difficult, seeing as the two little girls you thought fallen had more than enough strength left to kill their betrayers for what they had dared to do."

The conflict in those blue-green eyes was wiped out by hate, and her vision was wiped out by blurring shadows seconds later as she felt her back connect with the banister of the stair. Something within her snapped, and she could no longer move her legs.

"You're pathetic, Sailor Mars. You and your sisters. You are broken, defeated, and there is nothing you can do to stop this. Together you have aided your mistress in enchanting the prince of Earth against his senses, and denied my queen the love she deserves. How do you plead?"

Raechal hadn't even opened her mouth to speak when she felt the cold bite of steel through her heart. Her violet gaze was blurred when she opened her eyes with a cry, but her sight cleared enough to see the darkness lift from that ocean gaze above her long enough for the horror and grief to slice through the eyes of the only man she had ever truly loved.

_'Save me, Nightingale. Please. I don't . . . I-i can't . . .'_

A single, solitary tear slipped from her eyes and glittered across her dirt-smudged cheek. His voice. That was _his_ voice in her mind. He was trapped within and . . . oh gods above, _'Jadeite'_.

She raised a hand shakily, numbly aware that part of the white glove had been torn off at some point and that the crimson gloss on her nails was chipped.

"I forgive you, lover." she whispered, summoning a last smile as his hand cupped her own against his face and held it there. "And I set you free." Her hand moved to his heart and hovered there briefly, her purple eyes locking with his. Only when the darkness returned with a vengeance did she let loose the fiery energy that had built up within. "_Mars Fireball Strike_!"

Her power incinerated him within seconds, leaving only ash and a memory of his agonised screams. Wearily, she cast purple eyes to the ceiling above and the sky beyond it, too far gone in death and grief to realise that the ceiling was now simply gone.

"Selenity, save us all." her whisper faded as her life came to a close. The tattered fuku of Sailor Mars dissolved in a weak burst of flames, a final defiance, before settling back into her royal gown of scarlet silk.

The Silver Crystal would pick up on her wish, along with the wishes of others, and unknown to any other being it would choose to grant it.

* * *

Rei had no idea how long she had been slumped on the floor before the flames, crying her heart out over someone who, she had suddenly realised, had died over a thousand years ago and never returned.

Those four they had faced during their first year as senshi had not been the men they had once known. They had been demons housed within their bodies. The _real_ Jadeite, _her_ Jadeite, had been snatched from Metallia's clutches long before the senshi had ever been reborn.

Depressed and heartbroken as she was, she ignored the sudden surge in heat from the fire, and the warmth that suddenly surrounded her broken form on the shrine's floor.

"_Crying doesn't suit you, Nightingale."_

It was no more than a whisper, but it was enough to stop her tears in their tracks. She froze, not daring to move, nor look up. Not daring to breathe.

Something warm but as yet insubstantial weaved through her hair, smoothing the tangled tresses to comfort her.

Rei looked up to find two pools of ocean blue-green in the ethereal form leaning out of the flames, staring at her with endless affection and more. One hand lifted her chin slightly, and though it was made of flames like the rest of his body it didn't burn, didn't even singe her.

"_Look at me with love or anger, but never with tears, sweet Nightingale. I forgave you long ago lover, and I set you free."_


End file.
